Nikon just announced the D800. The much-anticipated step up from the D700 takes it more than a step. Where the D700 featured similar specs to the Nikon D3, the D800 bears almost no resemblance at all to the professional D4 body. The D4 has a 16.2 megapixel full-frame sensor, the D800 has a full-frame sensor that has an industry-leading (and unbelievably high) 36.3 megapixels!

The LCD on the back is also one of the biggest, at 3.2 inches across and 921,000 pixels. It works well for live view video and for framing stills.

It shoots 1080p video, with several options for size, compression and format, and shoot at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second. Nikon still offers no 60 frame-per-second option. It can output fully uncompressed HD via a built-in HDMI port. Like the D4, it allows for headphones to be plugged in to monitor the audio. Why these are the first DSLRs with this capability ever escapes us, it’s an extremely useful thing that has been available on video cameras virtually since the beginning of (video) recorded history.

With that much resolution, the raw (NEF) files will be a massive 76 megabytes each. It shoots full resolution at up to 4 frames per second, and 15 MP DX-cropped images at 6 fps.

Even with the incredible automatic features this camera has, it’s not for beginners. It has all the controls that a very advanced amateur or professional needs, and more resolution by far than anything else on the market. And at half the price of the D4, only $3000, it’s an amazing deal.

We want one!

For more information or to purchase a Nikon D800 digital camera, visit Amazon.com.